Sauron

[JamesCB]

Although there are great representations in the card game of Sauron's power, (DLoM and TLotR. Personally, I think The Lord of The Rings is better.) I think there could be a better version of Sauron's background lurking and scheming, for FotR block. So, here is my "Dream Card" Sauron.

•Sauron, The Last of the Maia
Twilight - 4
Strength - 24
Vitality - 5
Site-  6
Minion • Maia
Game text: Damage +1. Enduring Fierce.
Plays to your support area. Do not discard this minion at the end of a turn.
Sauron may not take wounds or be assigned to skirmishes.
At the start of each of your turns, heal Sauron.
The twilight cost of each Nazgul is -1.
Shadow: Discard Sauron from hand to heal Sauron.
Shadow: Exert Sauron to play a Orc from your discard pile.
Shadow: Exert Sauron and remove to play a Orc from your draw deck.
Shadow: Exert Sauron to play a Nazgul. His twilight is -2.
Maneuver or Regroup: Exert a Minion to heal Sauron.

•Sauron, The Abhorred
Twilight - 3
Strength - 24
Vitality - 5
Site - 3
Minion • Maia
Game Text: Damage +1. Enduring. Fierce.
Plays to your support area. Do not discard this minion at the end of a turn.
Sauron may not take wounds or be assigned to skirmishes.
At the start of each of your turns, heal Sauron.
Shadow: Remove to heal Sauron.
Skirmish: Exert Sauron to make a Orc Strength +2.

[TelTura]

Both of these probably work better as conditions (or artifacts) with tokens on them, so you don't need to specify all the extra rules.

For instance:

Sauron's Reach
Condition • Support Area
At the start of each of your turns, add a token here.
The twilight cost of each Nazgul is -1.
Shadow: Discard a minion from hand to add a token here.
Shadow: Remove a token here to play a Orc from your discard pile.
Shadow: Remove a token here and remove to play a Orc from your draw deck.
Shadow: Remove a token here to play a Nazgul. His twilight is -2.
Maneuver or Regroup: Exert a Minion to add a token here.


...etc.
Besides that, there's clearly a bit too much going on for each card; I don't care so much if a dream card violates the line count of the originals, but most cards do just one or two things. Dark As Darkness is an example of the higher end of the number of actions, but even that is just the same two things (wound RB, remove burden for twilight) at different times.

I suggest breaking these up into a few related token-based conditions, each one addressing a different element of Sauron's long arm.

[JamesCB]

Yeah that's probably the right thing to do.

[Wyrden333]

Yeah, theres no point in having all these keywords and strangth and what not on him, if you never gonna fight with him. Unless of course you give him the ability to do so.
I.e.

Shadow: If the fellowship is at site 8 or 9, discard 3  minions and spot 5 burdens or a companion in the dead pile, to ignore the first and third sentence of Saurons game text until the end of the turn.

I mean you could of course refine this all into a more elegant solution by doing several cards and conditions around Sauron, including an alternate Sauron like you mentioned in the beginning to clean off the overloaded cardtext, but that would certainly be a direction to go.

[JamesCB]

  I never even thought of that. That is a great idea. Here's a revised version of the card I originally made.

Sauron, The Last of the Maia
Minion • Maia
Strength - 24
Vitality - 5
Site - 6
Immortal. Damage +1 Enduring. Fierce.
Shadow: Play a Orc from your discard pile, or remove and play one from your draw deck.
Maneuver: If the fellowship if at site 8 or 9, spot 4 burdens on the Ring-bearer or 2 companions in the dead pile to make Sauron lose immortal until the regroup phase.